Re: School options - need advice!
Eagle Mum
04/02/25 01:32 AM
Eagle Mum, I find this interesting as in my case I was a bit of a late developer. Though, I wonder if I had been given sports science information and time to train, perhaps I could have used my older environment as motivation to improve my cardio base, and my academics?
I stayed amongst age peers through most of my school years. 1 subject was lagging, and I wasn't very well-behaved. Despite that, in hindsight these weren't sufficient reasons to deny me a grade skip. I could simply receive intense tuition in that subject, some ADHD coaching and tolerance from teachers.
I wonder how bad was your child's behavior when he was younger? I wonder if they didn't want him to skip grades or do similar things, or if he rejected them? If so, why? You do not need to be extremely mature and well-behaved for a grade skip as there is a large range of maturity in a grade. Academics is a different story, though.
In hindsight I would probably have skipped 1 grade first, then if I still wasn't challenged try enrichment/subject acceleration. Something similar to a "blend" of your daughters and son's experiences
My son was so focused on his own interests that he would completely ignore others, including figures of authority, although he wasn't badly behaved per se. We were advised by staff at his daycare centre to check his hearing (I had no doubt of its acuity) and for ADHD/ASD, so I didn't think it likely that any school would take him as an early entrant.
When my son realised at the beginning of grade 4 that his sisters had been early entrants and we hadn't applied for him (although he was in the youngest third of his class), he was very annoyed at first, but when I pointed out how disappointed he was when a well meaning relief teacher had given him a grade 6 booklet to work on, disrupting his contemplation of infinite sets of rational, irrational and other numbers, he agreed that skipping a grade or two would not have made much difference and it had been better for him to have stood out so far from his age peers that his regular teachers had not insisted on him doing regular work and given him free rein (as long as he didn't disrupt the rest of his class).
